We bought Eidos in Cape Town in March 2018 and it took us five months to get her ready to sail, mostly because it is very slow to have work done here. Our experience has not been always great:
- having parts delivered directly from outside South Africa is complicated and expensive
- in general the work is very slow, often people cancel appointments or just do not come
- work needs a lot of supervision
But we also had some good experience shared below.
Marina
We stayed at V&A marina part of Cape Town V&A Waterfront. The marina is very well managed, clean and well organised. The staff is friendly, it is very well protected and easy to go in and out. The location is excellent with shops, supermarkets (with delivery to the boat), restaurants and city all at walk distance.
Rigging
We worked with two riggers:
I have been quite disappointed by the quality of the work provided by a first rigger. They had to do everything two or three times, and they needed a lot of supervision. There was very little contribution for possible improvements. In some case I had to redo the work myself.
We then did the last part of the work with TS Rigging Solutions (084 3333100). They did a great work, they were fast and contributed with good ideas. I definitively recommend them.
Motors
We bought a generator from Onan that was installed by Charles Bowker (CMarine 079 8786738). Charles is normally busy and difficult to have on board but has plenty of experience and it was easy to work with.
Mastervolt/CZone/BEP/Solbian
I installed mostly myself a new inverter, charger, solar MPPT, switch panels, and other electrical part. The vendor for Mastervolt, CZone, BEP and Solbian solar panels was CDynamics (021 5553232). Lesley, the principal, was very supportive in terms of commercial terms and providing technical support.
Garmin and accessories
In Cape Town there are three Ship Chandlers: Central Boating, Manex and Seaport (021 510 6262). We worked almost exclusively with Seaport mainly due to Deon Coetzer. Deon provided a service beyond expectations, often offering consultancy on how to solve issues and find products even if not offered by them. We were told that if we needed to find something we needed to ask Deon of Seaport and it was exactly our experience.
Stainless and steel work
Eugene Blank has probably been the most reliable person we worked with in Cape Town. He rebuilt our rudder quadrants, made a solid bracket for our second autopilot, built our bbq, made manifolds for our watermaker, custom made sheaves and many other smaller things. Always precise with delivery time and quality of the work. He is also a sailor and contributed with great ideas.
Fiberglass and wood work
We used Action Yachting – David Barnes has great people working for him. In our case Rashid did a fantastic job building the new chart table and few cabinets. We also had the base of the windless redone in fiberglass and few other minor repairs. David has been always on time delivering the work.
Sails and covers
We worked with Ulman Sails to make a new lazy bag for the main sail, the closure of the cockpit and we bought an asymmetric spinnaker. Francesco (francesco@ullmansailsrsa.com ) has been fantastic helping with great ideas and delivering products in time.
Where to buy products for boat maintenance
Ropes
Southern ropes factory shop
Generic electrical parts and cables
AC/DC dynamics
Jedelect (cables)
Plumbing
Hosefit
FluidCo
Tools and power tools
Fawkes bros
Stainless and steal and some tools
Top Fast
Scuba diving equipment and service
Orca industry